Castor Oil & Castrol (Castrol R)
Got to admit, Dave, I've no clue 'cause
I do not know whether the "early" Castrol
Oils I grew up with in the late 50's &
early 60's were vegetable oil or petroleum based, though I believe it
was the
later. And the Castrol's before that???
Castrol "R"....formulated for high rpm
higher pressure, anti-foam, "racing"
oil I would think but here again, not familiar the specific base or
formula.
But I bet Chuck Christ might know a little
about the early Castrol Oils considering
his Dad was in racing during Castrol's
early days (I believe, anyway).
Castor oil comes from the castor bean
plant (also referred to as a veggie!)
and is "biodegradable" as far as
the internal combustion engine is
concerned (doesn't degrade the combustion process, per se) and mixes
nicely with gasoline/air mix which was
introduced into the rotary engine's crankcase and mixed with the
lubricating
castor oil.
All three elements were burned in the
combuston process. The inlet valve on
most of these engines was a spring-loaded affair fitted into the crown
of each piston, the outlet valve mounted
where you would expect it to be found
on the top of each cylinder.
The Gnome "monosouape" (single valve)
had inlet ports (as in model airplane piston motors) instead of an inlet
valve.
The Germans favored these motors later
in the war (though you could've fooled me) especially as the quality of
crude
availabe to them began deteriorating,
supposedly.
Considering the British very heavy use
of rotaries, in Sopwith Pups, Camels, Snipes and the French use in all
their
Nieuport models, I am not so inclined to believe the foregoing as THE
reason for
German use.
As weird as their design seems to us today, these engines had a very
favorable power to weight ratio at the time.
Cap'n. Bob
'60 :{)
|